South Korean economy

Kwestia podboju świata przez kulturę koreańską nie była nieunikniona, a jej historia nie wpisuje się wyłącznie w podniosłe narracje. Podwaliny hallyu zrodziły się w okresie zimnowojennych zmagań Korei, w wyniku rywalizacji wielkich firm i wśród polityków o jeszcze większym ego, w cieniu Korei Północnej. Mechanizmy, które doprowadziły do sukcesu marki "Korea", stworzyły rządy tyleż ambitne, co bezwzględne.

This paper examines the origins of South Korea's industrial economy in the Park Chung Hee regime's program for building a " self-reliant national defense " (jaju gukbang). Through independent arms development in the 1970s, Park's technocrats engineered and launched the modernizing forces that propelled South Korea's rapid economic growth, referred to as the " Miracle on the Hangang River. " From 1973 to 1979, the regime's Heavy and Chemical Industrialization Plan (HCIP) systematically merged civilian industries with a state-controlled system of indigenous weapons production built from the ground up. Drawing strength from a defense-related infrastructure, HCIP rapidly advanced civilian technology and developed a highly skilled labor force, while simultaneously promoting private sector growth and exportation. As select civilian industries produced weapons, military technologies were diffused through " spin-off " effects that built and expanded private-sector, export-based heavy and chemical industries. Deeply intertwined with economic development and export trade, South Korea's burgeoning defense industry aggressively supported Park's dual pursuits of " self-reliance " (jaju) in both national security and the economy. The legacy of South Korea's independent military modernization is seen in the state's enduring deep ties with what today represent the most technologically advanced and lucrative commercial industries in the Korean economy.

For decades South Korean politicians, pundits, and citizens have criticized the chaebŏl, the massive, family-owned conglomerates who take up a disproportionate share of the nation’s wealth and who use their influence to avoid penalties for law-breaking. However, political considerations, as well as the chaebŏl’s role in Korea’s post-war economic miracle, have caused reform efforts to fizzle once presidential candidates make their way into office. This thesis analyzes scholarly assessments of Korea’s presidents, their policies on economy and finance, and the political considerations each faced in dealing with the large business groups. It challenges the claims of these business groups, and their supporters, of the chaebŏl’s indispensability by comparing Korea to Taiwan, which enjoyed similar successes by fostering smaller businesses. It concludes by offering policy recommendations to the current presidential administration, which is better-positioned to tackle chaebŏl reform than any administration in decades.

ABSTRACT
This dissertation explores the process of foreign economic policy liberalization in Korea from 1980-2010. It accounts for variations in the degree of liberalization across sectors and issue areas through case studies centered on the policies related to trade, FDI, and finance. Sources of influences on this process such as democratization, the state’s developmental legacy, societal interests, ideational diffusion, and external stakeholders are incorporated into an analysis that identifies their impact on policy outcomes. This project looks at how significant changes in the internal and external parameters of the Korean economy generated coalitions favoring a more liberalized domestic economic order and those which sought to defend Korea’s state-centered, mercantilistic developmental model. It offers a detailed explication of the manner in which Korean policymakers sought to formulate political outcomes that accommodated a disparate array of actors with diverging preferences into the policy process, while seeking to serve their own particular multifaceted interests. It finds that while external and domestic proponents of reform were successful in pushing Korea into increasingly deeper levels of liberalization, these efforts were continually conditioned and often attenuated by the institutional legacies of the developmental era and the social forces that were unleashed by democratization. This left the Korean economy with a fragmented set of foreign economic policies that reflected the incomplete and highly contested liberalization reform initiatives that colored policymaking during this period.

At the same time South Korea seeks to stand out from Japan while trying to avoid being caught up by China. Being very open to the world, the Korean economy is particularly sensitive to the international situation. The 2008-2009 crisis was felt very strongly in the country. However the South Korea economy managed to bounce back but as a slower pace than expected. South Korean companies are in a similar position as the one they put their European and Japanese competitors nearly two decades ago. Authorities are aware that the growth strategy based on exports has reached its limits and it is time for the country to find new sources of economic growth, especially as the labor market remains tight and unemployment rate is increasing significantly, especially among youth. On political level although remain dependent on the United-States for its security, South Korea is trying to get closer to China since spring 2013. Alongside its relations with Japan continue to deteriorate. China is welcoming this move, especially as it sees it as a way to weaken the US position in the region.

"Cheju Island is located in the northern reaches of the East China Sea, between China and Japan, and approximately 60 miles off the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula. I lived and worked there from 1973 to 1975, from 1979 to 1980, and again from 1984 to 1985. My tenure on Cheju overlapped with an approximate decade of significant socio-economic change on Cheju Island that I still consider remarkable and troubling, as I bore witness to rapid and ruthless transformations of Cheju’s traditional natural villages into modern administrative villages. My general impressions of qualitative gains and losses during this period of transition, with emphases on the processes, outcomes and implications of ideologically-inspired anthropogenic changes, are presented in this chapter."

This article outlines and analyzes the various factors that have shaped agriculture and rural life in South Korea. This paper first outlines the historical role of the government, farmers and the public in influencing and shaping agrarian life from 1961 to 1992. Second, it looks at the effects of deregulating the agricultural economy over the last two decades. Finally, based on this historical analysis, it considers the present and future course of agriculture/rural life in South Korea. In particular, this article argues that stabilizing and enhancing the agricultural industry and rural life depends on 1) the South Korean government crafting sensible, democratic agrarian policies that give farmers the flexibility and power to adapt to the continually changing global economy and 2) farmers developing an infrastructure of power through which to strengthen economic positions, influence policy making and shape cultural trends. In short, the survival of agriculture and rural life under an industrial/urban centered-global economy requires a process of retrofitting agrarian institutions, structures and cultures in ways that not only ensure social and economic diversity and stability, but also national security through food self-sufficiency.

When Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales, took the stage at Edaily’s 6th World Strategy Forum on June 11th at the famed Shilla Seoul, his keynote about how he become an entrepreneur was very personal. With a comical flare for storytelling, he carefully laid out many of his failed attempts for launching businesses prior to Wikipedia.

Entrepreneurship comes in many forms, but startups like Wikipedia are niched in the rarest of all categories now referred to as unicorn companies. Unicorns fall into a one-in-a-million classification where companies like Uber, Dropbox, Airbnb, Pinterest, and Snapchat have revenues that grow exponentially into the billion-dollar range seemingly over night.

They also represent foundational shifts in the way the world does business.

Even though South Korea received the highest possible ranking in the 2015 Bloomberg Innovation Index, the country is better defined as a “fast follower with great secondary innovations” rather than one that spawns “unicorn companies with primary innovations.” But that description may not be true much longer.

In just a few short decades, this tiny country has gone from being dirt poor and technically primitive to one of the wealthiest and most technically advanced in the world. Framed around a super aggressive culture that permeates virtually every aspect of Korean life, the entire country seems determined to not only reach the top, but go far beyond what anyone else dreamed possible.

This was exactly what drove the people behind the 6th World Strategy Summit to focus on entrepreneurship, and what the startup communities of the future will look like.

A partir de 2007, la crisis de las hipotecas de alto riesgo señaló las bases insostenibles del auge económico mundial y su transmisión a otros mercados y a otras regiones del mundo empezó a revertir los anteriores efectos sobre las economías emergentes y en desarrollo

Purpose – This paper aims to propose to politicize partner choice as a discourse that rationalizes, legitimizes and justifies the choice of partners by underlining economic, cultural and institutional differences
to (re)create power relations. By reconceptualizing partner choice as a discourse, the paper challenges the established view of partner choice according to international business and management studies as a rational and strategic behavior based on resource complementarity, best practices and win–win situations.

Design/methodology/approach – Based on the longitudinal study of Israeli–Korean business collaboration, which includes in-depth interviews, observations and media texts, this paper uses critical
discourse analysis (CDA) to demystify partner choice as neither a neutral nor an objective behavior to unveil its discursive construction and embeddedness in power relations.

Findings – The actors on both sides of the Israeli–Korean business collaboration evoke resource complementary discourse between “Israeli innovation” and “Korean productivity” to rationalize their partner
choice as a win–win situation. CDA demonstrates how both sides are engaged in a “borrowing” process from east-to-west and head-to-hands postcolonial images to (re)produce hierarchy between the parties. While east–west mapping remained almost unchallengeable, the reversal, crossing and blurring of the Israel-to-Korea knowledge transfer direction provides a counter-narrative to resource complementarity discourse.

Originality/value – The resource complementarity discourse supported by east–west mapping and “head–hands” justifications for partner choice reveals the lingering presence of postcolonial images, imagery
and imagination. By taking two nations without substantial troubled memories, histories and relations, the paper broadens the picture beyond national contexts, emphasizing the importance of borrowing and
translation from postcolonial vocabulary to non-colonial situations.

Keywords
Critical discourse analysis, Development discourse,
International business and management studies, Partner choice, Postcolonial imagination, Resource complementarity, Postcolonial theory

South Korea's rapid economic development since the 1960s has transformed it from an impoverished agrarian economy to a prosperous industrial economy in less than half a century. But with the era of rapid growth having come to an end, its economy is suffering from stagnant GDP and wage growth. The loss of economic momentum has induced a deep crisis of confidence among the Korean people about whether Korea can achieve its long-held goal of joining the first tier of advanced industrial countries. This essay first examines how the economic slowdown and the daunting nature of the reforms that are needed to restore growth in the face of a maturing Korean economy have caused Koreans to question themselves and their identity. It then looks at the prospects for successful economic revitalization by showing how Koreans have acted in the face of similar challenges in their recent history.

Based on empirical study of newly declassified sources from South Korea, the dissertation examines the Park Chung Hee regime’s (1961-1979) policies related to chaju kukpang, or “self-reliant national defense,” from the late-1960s through the 1970s. In response to North Korea’s provocations in 1968 and the US reduction of troops stationed in South Korea in 1971, the Park regime masterminded an independent military modernization program in which citizens and civilian industries, functioning as the de facto engine of domestic arms production, propelled the emergence of a military-industrial complex. The study examines how regime policies mobilized Korean citizens for the effort and how civilian actors eventually responded by personally investing to fulfill this national project. The author observes that the state transformed civilians through both super-structural and infrastructural processes, as Park’s policies steered both the industrial capacities and the consciousness of the Korean populace along a path toward security independence. The total mobilization effort proceeded through complex mergers, tensions, and negotiations of state goals with civilian ideological and material interests, ultimately forging chaju kukpang as a bona fide national movement. The story of ROK defense industry development offers a prism through which the interplay of polity and society in the course of Korea’s modernization can be reexamined, with an eye to refining prevalent theories and suggesting implications for future research on the Park era.

South Korea has had a continuous engagement with significant trade, investment and security matters simultaneously in its relations with other nations.
South Korea’s bilateralism with China is a part of a larger milieu which China has been constructing, that includes the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Asian Infra- structure Investment Bank (AIIB).
South Korea has become a member of the AIIB in December 2015 and it has not joined the BRI. The discussion here also concerns South Korea-China FTA agreement’s aftermath.  China is a nation with a very broad range of regional, intraregional and global ambitions and strategies. Undoubtedly, the East Asian security framework has an overbearing impact on the trade and investment environment. 
Moreover, the relations between Seoul and Pyongyang are relevant to the economic and political developments in East Asia 
There are earlier discussions of the structure of the US-South Korea and China- North Korea alliances and there is also prior coverage of the effects of China on North Korean economy and the consequences for South Korea, neither of which will not be recapped here due to lack of space.
South Korea, together with the US, Japan, North Korea, China and Russia, has been engaged in a long process of negotiations in several ‘six party talks’ since 2003, to bring a lasting peace to the Korean Peninsula, which have not, as yet, led to a final outcome, as has been the case with the series of the US and North Korean disarmament talks that originated in 1994.
While these issues are relevant to the larger context of the topic, in this discussion, the focus is on the South Korean economic model and business systems and its interaction with the Chinese economy and the 2015 FTA and the Chinese business systems.

In this paper we take a postcolonial management approach to exploring the lingering significance of postcolonial imagery in shaping legal disputes between host country and foreign multinational corporations (MNCs). We apply a critical discourse analysis to the Korea vs. Orbotech industrial espionage lawsuit, in which the Korean government accused a foreign MNC of leaking its “national core technology.” Through this analysis we demonstrate how IE discourse was used to fight Korea’s negative reputation as a technological imitator, associate Korea with global technological leaders, and disassociate itself from other “imitators.” In response, Orbotech’s IE discourse has aimed to reproduce Korea’s imitator stigma. Our findings highlight the continual role of the imagined North/South, West/rest symbolic boundaries in constructing global business hierarchies even when the marginalized party—Korea—has already moved to the elite economies club. While international management studies rarely address IE beyond its technical meaning, we underline the embeddedness of IE-as-a-discourse in maintaining and disrupting the geopolitical business landscape.

In this study, which covers the years 2000-2018, the foreign trade analysis of Turkey and South Korea, which are in the category of developing countries, is aimed to be done on the basis of factor intensity. In this perspective, "the Index Measuring Contribution to Trade Balance, Michaely Index and Lafayette Index" were used in order to analyze the foreign trade of the two countries mentioned. All analyses were conducted within the framework of the Standard International Trade Classification. According to the scores obtained as a result of the analyses, Turkey had competitive advantage in foreign trade of low value added labor and capital intensive product groups. South Korea, on the other hand, had competitive advantage in the foreign trade of high value added product groups, which are mainly capital intensive and hard to imitate R&D-based products.

Saemaul Movement was a community-based rural poverty alleviation policy of South Korea in the 1970s which contributed to ending poverty in rural communities. Its success can be attributed to how Koreans made use of indigenous community practices in policy design. The objective of the research was to evaluate the adaptation of Saemaul in Ghana, focusing on similarities in economic conditions and indigenous practices. The research utilised literature, interviews, and observations as the basis of methodology. The research findings revealed that the rural economic conditions in South Korea before Saemaul Movement was introduced was very similar to Ghana's current rural economic indicators, which presents a reliable basis for comparative analysis on adaptation of Saemaul Movement in Ghana. Interviewees made a case for replicability of SM in Ghana. The results point to the existence of many similar indigenous rural community development practices which are prevalent in both case countries, and a possibility of developing poverty alleviation policies in Ghana based on existing indigenous practices as evidenced in the South Korean Saemaul Movement case. The researchers conclude that for poverty alleviation policies to work in Ghana, efforts in policy design must be based on utilising existing indigenous practices of rural communities.

Presently, South Korea's "No Japan" boycott is rapidly spreading from economic centric to people-centric in South Korea. South Korea and Japan have a long bitter history of the rivalry. People of South Korea always remain critical that Japan must officially make apologies and compensation to victims of Imperial Japan's wrongdoings. Presently, No Japan boycott is new, but their roots are in history, which makes difficult to heal the wounds of people in Korea.

Current tensions in the Korean Peninsula may make it seem an unlikely proposition, but both Seoul and Moscow have strong interests in the building of a natural gas pipeline between the two countries. In energy terms, Russia wishes to diversify away from Europe while avoiding excessive reliance on China. South Korea is a significant energy importer and many of her key SLOCs (Sea Lanes of Communication) run through the dangerous waters of the East and South China Seas. Politically, neither side is interested in seeing North Korea become a de facto Chinese protectorate, in Seoul's case since this would make reunification an even more difficult prospect, making cross-border cooperation and a stronger Russian presence  attractive, while not risk-free.

Korea Południowa w ciągu ostatnich miesięcy udowodniła, że z koronawirusem radzi sobie dużo lepiej niż większość państw. Relatywny sukces sprawia, że kraj bywa określany jako modelowy przykład skutecznej walki z epidemią. Nie powinno to jednak przysłonić dużo bardziej złożonego obrazu całości.

전환 함정(Transformation Trap)이란 전환사회에서 전형적으로 나타나는 정치
적, 사회적, 경제적 모순이 해결되지 못하는 현상을 말한다. 사회적, 정치적 갈등
속에서는 다음 발전단계로 넘어가기 위해 필요한 과정이 정치적으로 실행 불가능
할 수도 있다.
따라서 진보적 전환 프로젝트는 기득권 계급과 신흥 계급 사이의 포용적 타협
을 통해 지속가능한 발전을 위한 사회적 기반을 구축하는 데 초점을 맞춰야 한다.
발전적 구상은 공동체주의적 후견주의와 정체성의 정치(identitypolitics)에서 벗
어나, 모두에게 최대의 역량을 제공함으로써 달성하는 혁신과 역량강화를 통해
변화해야 한다.
모두가 최대의 역량을 누리는 좋은 사회(GoodSociety)라는 비전은 거대한 전환
을 달성하기 위한 폭넓은 사회연합 구축을 가능케 할 것이다.

This book provides the basic knowledge of Japanese contributions in political economy and the ongoing research agenda, such as the pursuit of theoretical consistency in Marxian economics by Uno School; the concept of ‘civil society’ as a criterion of existing socio-economic structure; a mathematical reconstruction of Marxian theory; and an analysis of environmental pollution. The new generation of Japanese political economists in collaboration with their overseas counterparts has produced new insights into political economy and into the newly emerging structure of the world economy.

The book provides useful insights into international capitalism and how past patterns of uneven development are now changing; the role of international finance in affecting both national and international growth and employment patterns; an analysis of recent growth patterns in Asia; and the specific issue emerging within the Asian region and the implications for economics, social change and geopolitics.

This article outlines and analyzes the various factors that have shaped agriculture and rural life in South Korea. This paper first outlines the historical role of the government, farmers and the public in influencing and shaping agrarian life from 1961 to 1992. Second, it looks at the effects of deregulating the agricultural economy over the last two decades. Finally, based on this historical analysis, it considers the present and future course of agriculture/rural life in South Korea. In particular, this article argues that stabilizing and enhancing the agricultural industry and rural life depends on 1) the South Korean government crafting sensible, democratic agrarian policies that give farmers the flexibility and power to adapt to the continually changing global economy and 2) farmers developing an infrastructure of power through which to strengthen economic positions, influence policy making and shape cultural trends. In short, the survival of agriculture and rural life under a...

輸出への高い依存度は韓国資本主義の構造的な特徴として挙げられて来た。韓国資本主義の輸出依存度は高度成長期で ある60年代半ば以降から80年代半ばまで、そして97年危機以降から2011年に至る時期に渡って急速に増加して来た。 しかし最近世界的な貿易沈滞と中国の構造変化を背景に韓国資本主義には輸出依存度の下落が現れている。本稿は 「2010年代輸出依存度の弱化として現れた世界経済の変化が、従来の「輸出主義蓄積体制」にもたらした変化は何か」とい う質問を投げる。そのため、様々な1次·2次文献を輸出主義という研究関心から検討し、輸出主義の構造変動を整理し た。

具体的に本稿は輸出依存度を基準とし、韓国の輸出主義体制の展開を四つの時期に分け、輸出依存度の上昇と下落という 変化をもたらした地域的変化を明らかにし、またそれが内部的構造とはどう相互作用したのかを究明した。

輸出主義体制の第1期は輸出の外延的拡張を追求する「外延的輸出主義体制」であった。この体制が成立した背景には「東 アジア三角貿易体制」があり、その条件は国民国家の相対的自律性が保証される国家間秩序と東アジアの冷戦体制だっ た。朴正煕政権はこの条件に答え、「東アジア三角貿易体制」に照応する調整役割を果たした。この時期の国内的条件は 蓄積体制として「借入·輸出経済」、その作動に照応する調節様式として「開発独裁」であり、二つの総体を「開発独裁発展 様式」と呼ぶ。

輸出主義体制の第2期は調整期/移行期として「韓国的フォーディズム体制」であった。 この時期は外延的輸出主義の地域 的条件と国内的条件のいずれも解体または危機に陥り、新たな要素が出現する。 まず、地域的条件だった三角貿易体 制、冷戦体制、ブレトンウッズ体制の3者がすべて解体されるか、危機に陥る。 内的条件においても開放と民主 化、自由化によって圧縮成長と開発独裁が解体される。 一方、国家後退の空白の中で財閥権力の全面化、労働 階級の浮上という新しい要素が出現する。 マクロ経済的メカニズム上では、貿易黒字と脱債務化に伴い借入輸出経済の 基盤が消える一方、内需循環の相対的に強化される。 そして、これを基盤に財閥の新しい戦略が登場する。 輸出市場と 内需市場の矛盾、発展主義的属性と新自由主義的属性の矛盾、民主主義と財閥権力の矛盾を孕む時期であったこの時期 は、内的要因と外的要因の結合によって触発された97年通貨危機で大々的な変化を迎えることになる。

輸出主義体制の第3期は「内包的輸出主義体制」であった。 外延的輸出主義の時期の特徴が経常収支の赤字であったとす れば、この時期は経常収支の黒字が安定的に維持され、海外向けの循環によって輸出需要を支援する。 国内資本が輸
出の条件を自ら創出するという意味で、この時期の資本循環は「内包的」の性格を持つ。この時期には 「海外投資を通じた資本輸出」と「低負債ー低投資-高収益体制」としての特徴が現れた。 新たな投資レジムの
不在·金融化の効果·不安定性の増大で投資·消費の停滞や低成長傾向が現れる一方、輸出だけが突出的に成長したのだ。 輸出循環と内需循環の構造的な断絶よって、不平等の増加と経済の二重化を生まれる一方、内需の不振がさらに深まっ た。

輸出主義体制の第4期は内包的輸出主義を可能にした地域的条件が弱化·変形する調整期といえる。 2008年の金融 危機以降、金融の世界化にはブレ〡キがかかった。続いて、世界的な長期低迷が現れる一方、生産の世界化も停滞してお り、韓国の輸出を牽引した中国もリバランシングに取り組んでいる。 ギリシャ危機やイギリスのブレグジット、トランプ 政権の登場や米中貿易戦争など、いろんなところで世界化の暗雲が垂れ込めている。韓日間の貿易紛争も、もはや経済 と政治の分離および自由貿易という価値が優先的に考慮されていないことを示している。

2011年以降から生産性の輸出偏向的な上昇傾向は以前とは明らかに違う様子を見せている。 しかし、これは内需の成長 が主導した80年代末とは異なり、輸出の不振が生んだ結果である。 一方、輸出の下落傾向とは反対に輸入がさらに大き く下落して経常収支の黒字が増えている。 ともに海外投資も増加しているが、00年代のように輸出の上昇を伴ってはい ない。 輸出と内需の構造的な断絶は続き、生産と利潤の統制権も依然として財閥に独占されている。本時期では弱まる 内需と輸出の危機に答え、内需を復興させるための政府の努力が現れた。代表的なものが朴槿恵(パク·クンヘ)政権の信 用拡張政策と文在寅(ムン·ジェイン)政権の所得主導成長であった。 しかし、前者の場合、対内的不安定性を深め、後者 も当初から公言したことを達成できなかった。今現在の「長期2010年代」が90年代のように「歴史的再編を正しく遂行す ることに失敗し、新しい支配形態を発明することに失敗したブルジョア支配·政治の失敗」に帰結するのか、それとも新し い対案が成熟する土台になるか、絶体絶命の問いが投げられている。

本研究の意義は韓国資本主義の蓄積体制、中でも輸出主義の構造変動という問題意識をもって、日本の学界には紹介さ れていない韓国語の文献を整理する一方、関連事例を集め、長い歴史的の流れの上に配置したことである。

Interview on the April 2020 election in South Korea

Lors des premières élections postcoronavirus dans le monde, les Sud-Coréens ont plébiscité la gestion de la crise sanitaire par le gouvernement de centre-gauche du président Moon Jae-in. Et ont montré leur attachement à une démocratie acquise de haute lutte.

The SK macro-economic data shows a decline in GDP during crisis and imbalance in current account for a long time but this imbalance in 1997 changed from deficit to surplus which was a significant signal of the financial crisis. However, this crisis was a result of worse government’s industrial and exchange rate policy, the government fixed the currency exchange rate and had liberalized the financial sector, so the government did not have enough control on the financial market.
The consequence of these government worse policies was the increase in the amount of short term debts and currency depreciation, which led the economy to fall in liquidity shortage in the SK’s economy, but the government with support of IMF and United States could manage the crisis by infusion of billions of dollars in the economy and extension of short term debts repayments, which was conditioned in financial structure and monetary & fascial reforms.

This article discusses the background, nature and application of the concept of ubiquitous city, presenting u-city initiatives of affluent and techno-savvy cities in Asia and the West with special reference to the case of South Korea. The focus is on how ubiquitous technologies have been and can be utilised in developing urban infrastructure, including town planning, street and property maintenance, water supply, public transportation and environmental protection. Such an emerging infrastructure is expected to provide everyone with an opportunity to access urban infrastructure and services with the help of ubiquitous technologies. However, in order to become reality, this requires some kind of democratisation of technology, which is a neglected topic in u-city discourse. It is also important to analyse u-city developments from the point of view of production of space with special reference to the potential colonisation of everyday life. Theoretically speaking, one answer to such compelling questions about the rationale of u-city development can be sought from the idea of the ‘right to the city’, a slogan originally coined by Henri Lefebvre. This approach highlights the importance of involving people to envisioning the future of urban form starting from the perspective of their everyday life. Such a dimension should be given more prominent role in current u-city developments.